The boys were after birds, not bats.
Taken from "Dictionary of Birds" by Campbell and Lack. BOU 1985.
Trapping - for roosting birds
"Bat-fowling" with tall folding nets clapped together to take birds as they
fly out when disturbed from their roosts at night, or dropping nets over
ground-roosting birds dazzled by strong light are other useful techniques,
particularly at communal roosts of finches, gulls or Starlings.
==========
Presumably bats can also be caught with the same nets (and probably were in
the past). In the 1970's bird ringers were still using this method to
catch Starlings in the enormous roosts that we used to have in conifer
plantations, etc. (millions). To-day, the common method of catching birds
for ringing is to use very fine Mist Nets strung between poles. Bat
Workers also use them to catch bats for study. You need to be licensed to
use these nets for either birds or bats.
Bevan Craddock
Penkridge, Stafford, UK
At 08:54 02/03/99 +0000, you wrote:
>I've come across a book on the birds of Oxfordshire printed in c. 1870 in
>which there is a reference to local boys going "bat
>fowling". They seem to have used nets as the context was that they
>occassionally caught robins which they released. Does anyone know
>anything about this pastime in Oxfordshire or elsewhere? I'd particularly
>like to know what they were likely to do with the bats when they'd
>"fowled" them.
>
>AEM
>
>
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